ARF Yerevan Condemns Violence against Council Members

‘What We Witnessed, Defied All Human Rights and Norms and Cannot Be Justified’

YEREVAN (A.W.)—The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Yerevan gomideh (committee) has strongly condemned the violence against two members of Yerevan City Council, which took place at a council session yesterday.

Moments after this confrontation, two members of the Yerkir Tsirani party were physically assaulted (Screengrab: RFE/RL video)

Two female members of the Yerkir Tsirani party were physically attacked and assaulted by members of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) after they brought putrid sewage samples as a “gift” for the Yerevan Mayor during yesterday’s council session.

In a statement released on Feb. 14, the ARF of Yerevan said that while some may disagree with the methods of the Yerkir Tsirani party, the behavior and actions of the majority of the city council is completely unacceptable. “What we witnessed, defied all human rights and norms and cannot be justified,” a part of the statement read.

According to the ARF of Yerevan, the city council’s indifference to the several problems that exist in Yerevan unacceptable, “especially after citizens have raised these issues many times and no visible steps have been taken to resolve them… The fact that the city administration has several problems is not really news to anyone.”

“There are, however, more acceptable options for raising issues, and we believe these options are not yet exhausted,” the statement went on.

The ARF of Yerevan then called for “civilized solutions” to the problems at hand, without overlooking the institution of the city’s highest body. “We will closely follow the steps taken by the municipality to solve the issues raised by our citizens,” the statement read.

The statement also called for the steps for solving the several problems in the city to be properly publicized by the council, so that all the city’s institutions can have their say in the process and so the citizens are aware that work is being done.

7 Comments

This is the sickening ruling criminal RPA party of serjuk who has been running Armenia like their fieldom, the RPA have a licence to kill,beat,rigg elections,plunder,fraud, and administer their own oligarch’s justice.

These men should be punished. If they don’t know how to behave or treat a human being , then they should be behind bars. Their management must be forced to resign if they do not take any action against this kind of violence.
It is so frustrating and annoying to see that in this century we still have men that lack respect towards women.

There is no place for assault or violence in public or private discourse, but go disrupt a city council meeting where you live and see what happens to you. Don’t blow this out of proportion. Doesn’t this sort of thing happen in other countries all the time, and people don’t take it as total proof of total illegitimacy of country’s political leadership and political system. Not that the political system or leaders in Armenia are perfect and not to justify the incompetence and corruption that exists in Armenia, but where in the world is the political system and politicians perfect? But most of all, don’t blow this out of proportion.